Useful life of a machine and/or equipment may be extended by performing preventive maintenance. In some situations, preventive maintenance may be performed on a set schedule, for example, time elapsed and/or operating hours for a machine and/or piece of equipment. Such a set schedule may result in replacing some parts before it is necessary. Delays in scheduled maintenance may result in equipment failure which may be catastrophic, depending on the failure mode. In order to anticipate a failure of a component and/or a machine, it may be desirable to monitor one or more conditions related to the machine and/or component. Based on this monitoring, maintenance may be performed more efficiently, for example, to avoid replacing components that are sound and/or to replace components prior to failure.
In some situations (e.g., wind farm), the machine (e.g., wind turbine) may be exposed to hostile environmental conditions, e.g., rain, snow and/or temperature extremes. A monitoring device located on or near the machine may likewise be exposed to the hostile environmental conditions. Although electrical and/or electronic hardware may exist that is designed to withstand such conditions, such hardware may add significant cost. It may therefore be desirable to provide a relatively low cost and robust equipment monitoring system.